Golden Boy
by Rouben Mamoulian
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Adolphe Menjou, Barbara Stanwyck, Joseph Calleia, Lee J. Cobb, William HoldenDirector: Rouben Mamoulian
Brand: Sony
Producer: Rouben Mamoulian
Producer: William Perlberg
Writer: Clifford Odets
Writer: Daniel Taradash
Writer: Lewis Meltzer
Writer: Sarah Y. Mason
Writer: Victor Heerman
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of Golden Boy
DVD Review: A Classic with two great stars
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm 74 and may have seen this years ago, but being a huge fan of William Holden, I have been going back and watching a lot of his films. This one was his first big hit. Great chemistry between him and Stanwyck.DVD Review: Involving Story With Good Characters
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good classic movie worth owning on DVD. The main attribute? You care about these people in the movie.
On first look, it was a shock at first to see William Holden this young. In this film, he looked about 19 and didn't even have the deep voice I was accustomed to hearing in his movies from the `60s on. However, I've watched this three times and enjoyed it all three times, especially now that it finally came out on DVD in late 2007. No problems with the transfer, either.
I didn't recognize Lee J. Cobb, either, who played Holden's father, a Jewish man with a beard. Barbara Stanwyck, meanwhile, played her typical role: tough gal with a soft heart underneath. Yeah, boxing fans might find a few credibility problems but overall, this is a good story and well-acted.
DVD Review: May we PLEASE see more 30's Stanwyck films on dvd, Sony?
Summary: 5 Stars
Stanwyck did approx 35 films during the 1930's, and many of the them are with Columbia, as she was shared with them and Warner Brothers. Sony, PLEASE get busy putting these films out on dvd, her fans deserve it and many other stars of the same period get much better treatment than she. I hope Amazon can pass the word onto the studios that not everyone wants to see the absolute dreck that is coming out of the studios today. DVD Review: Golden Boy..Wherever you are?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great movie made in a banner year for movies. 1939. Golden Boy introduced William Holden to millions of fans. It was Barbara Stanwyck who stood by him and convinced the producers to keep him in the movie. The results are evident. Holden plays the confused young man torn between his love of music and love for boxing, not to mention his love for the tough and complicated Stanwyck. The dialogue is good and the portrayal of an Italian -American family of the time and the father-son struggle and the romantic adventure all play as well today as they did in 1939. When Stanwyck received the Special Oscar in 1982 she paid tribute to Holden with the words "to my Golden Boy, wherever you are." Both William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck live on forever in film and in this great movie. Bravo to Golden Boy.DVD Review: Not so golden gloves
Summary: 2 Stars
Some films age badly, but Golden Boy practically decomposes before your eyes. Not the print, which is crisp and beautiful as new in Columbia's recent DVD, but in plot and dialogue it's beyond prehistoric. A-list production values it may have, but boy, is it bad.
Clifford Odets may have fashioned himself as a champion of the working man, but his patronising portrayal of violinist-boxer William Holden's immigrant family makes a Chico Marx routine look like Arthur Miller by comparison. No clich? is left unturned, be it Lee J. Cobb's Gepetto-like Ay-a-Tallyana papa, the loveable wife-beating brother-in-law (she loves it really: no, she really DOES) or Holden's Golden Boy playing Brahms' Cradle Song on the violin - you'll be rooting for him to bust his hand so he can never play the violin again. Ye gods, the man even names a black fighter - I'm not kidding - the Chocolate Drop. And the dialog! The cast should have been paid danger money for going anywhere near it.
Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou fare better, but Joseph Calleia's mobster is unintentionally funnier than Joe Piscopo's Danny Vermin in Johnny Dangerously, though he does at least flick a mean cigarette. Even William Holden, in his star-making role, is strikingly poor here. It's not just that, terrifying but true, he looks like a very young Tom Hanks but his acting is clumsy, his voice weak and he occasionally looks awkward and desperately unsure of how to act to camera: hard to believe that you're watching the first steps of a future screen great here - indeed, just about the only line to ring true is when Stanwyck tells him "I'll see you in 1966. By then, you may have become somebody." Do yourself a favor and see Body and Soul or The Set-Up instead.
Description of Golden Boy
Adapted from Clifford Odets famous play, The Golden Boy marked William Holden's first major film appearance. Holden stars as a promising violin player who ruins his career by moonlighting as a prize-fighter. Barbara Stanwyck co-stars as the woman who tries to convince him to give up his musical ambitions.Barbara Stanwyck purists--and who isn't one?--are in for a treat with Golden Boy, a little-seen but true gem of a hard-knocks romance. The film's pedigree is aces: Based on a play by Clifford Odets, directed by the great Rouben Mamoulian, and starring not only Stanwyck but Adolphe Menjou, Lee J. Cobb, and a fresh-faced William Holden, in his breakout screen role. The film crackles with 1939 pre-noir atmosphere, with the New Yawk guys and dames spinning slang out of the sides of their mouths.
Stanwyck sparkles as Lorna Moon, a gruff gal running around with the married Tom Moody (Menjou), a boxing promoter looking for the Next Big Thing. In walks the dreamy young Joe Bonaparte (Holden), part violin prodigy, part boxing phenom--though he doesn't look the pugilist part at first. "He's got curls, too!" sneers the scornful Moody. But Joe makes a believer out of him--and of the slinky Lorna. When fists start flying, so do the sparks. Some of the dialogue is dated (not to mention the young wife who likes being smacked around), but the snapshot of the era is spot-on, and Stanwyck, as always, steers the film to a higher ground.
Extras include a Ford Theatre TV episode, "Sudden Silence" from the mid-'50s; a cartoon, "The Kangaroo Kid"; a crazy comedy short called "Pleased to Mitt You" starring Stooge Shemp Howard (!); and other great vintage tidbits. Get ready to go 15 rounds with Golden Boy. --A.T. Hurley
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)Universal; Release date: 2009-03-21; DVD
Best price: $15.88
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Full-Screen Edition)Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Lost: The Complete Fifth SeasonRelease date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $36.99
Price in other shops:
The Proposal (Single Disc Widescreen)BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-10-13; DVD
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
![Angels & Demons [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Angels-Demons-Blu-ray-B002O5M4SU-X.jpg)
Angels & Demons [Blu-ray]SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $18.90
Price in other shops:
Four ChristmasesNEW LINE HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $12.66
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Two-Disc Limited Special Edition + Digital Copy)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
Julie & JuliaRelease date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Angels & Demons (Single-Disc Theatrical Edition)SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Widescreen Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Man From ColoradoSony; Release date: 2004-06-08; DVD
Best price: $3.14
Price in other shops:
Ball of FireMGM HOME VIDEO (UNDER FOX); Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $7.79
Price in other shops:
The Claudette Colbert Collection (Three-Cornered Moon / Maid of Salem / I Met Him in Paris / Bluebeard's Eighth Wife / No Time for Love / The Egg and I)Universal; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $35.00
Price in other shops:
The Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2 (A Woman's Face / Flamingo Road / Sadie McKee / Strange Cargo / Torch Song)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-02-12; DVD
Best price: $31.53
Price in other shops:
Crime of PassionTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-12-02; DVD
Best price: $6.18
Price in other shops:
The Furies - Criterion CollectionIMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2008-06-24; DVD
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Daisy Kenyon (Fox Film Noir)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops:
My ReputationWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-30; DVD
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Executive SuiteWARNER HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2007-10-30; DVD
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops:
Barbara Stanwyck - The Signature Collection (Annie Oakley / East Side, West Side / My Reputation / Executive Suite / Jeopardy / To Please a Lady)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-30; DVD
Best price: $36.70
Price in other shops: